But damn, why did they need such a big freaking sewer system?

We walk until my feet start to slow, and Aron has to hook me by the elbow and pull me along beside him. I’m trying to keep up, but I’m not used to this sort of thing and my cloak and clothing are sodden with the wet sludge that seems to get higher with every step. Eventually, Aron pauses to let me catch my breath, his mouth a firm line of displeasure.

“I’m sorry,” I wheeze, adjusting the bag on my back that’s digging into my shoulders. “I’m trying.”

“I know. It isn’t enough, though.” He takes the pack from my shoulder and slings it over his. After another glance around, he points at a grate in the distance. “That looks like the last one for a bit. We’ll climb out there.”

“Is it safe?” I can’t help but ask.

“None of this is safe,” he tells me, voice cutting. “But we can’t stay here all night.”

“Why not? We’re already covered in poop.”

“Because this is a sewer and the water’s rising.” Aron looks at me like I’m stupid. “The tide’s coming in. Unless you want to drown in someone else’s shit, we have to get out of here.”

“It is?” I look down and sure enough, I guess the water (if you can call it that) is higher than it was before. I thought it was because the tunnel was just, getting deeper in this part, but it’s past my knees and soaking the hem of my tunic. “I didn’t realize.”

“How is it I’m the immortal and you’re the one that has no clue how a city works?”

I slap his arm, irritated. “Don’t you start that shit with me. You want to know how it works where I live? We go into a tiny little room, sit on a toilet, take a dump, and then jiggle a handle and the magic poo gods take it all away. Whoosh. That’s it. That’s the extent of my knowledge. Once a month I pay the water bill and that’s all I do. So if your stupid city doesn’t work the way my stupid city did, don’t blame me.”

I glare at him, waiting for his answer.

He just watches me. His mouth twitches, just a little. Finally, he says, slowly, “Magic poo gods?”

I throw my hands up in the air. “You’re impossible and I hate you. If we’re leaving, let’s just go.”

“Should we say a prayer to the magic poo gods first?” When I shoot him the bird, he snorts with amusement. “Here I thought you didn’t believe in any gods.”

“There’s just one where I come from, and he doesn’t put up with any lesser god bullshit like this place, thank you.” I stomp ahead, splashing through the horrible, sludgy water so I can get away from my equally horrible companion.

Aron’s laughter rumbles through the sewer pipe, and I ignore him, pushing forward. I’m so tired and the night has been so long. To think I just took a bath and now I’m covered in crap and mud once more. It’s like this entire world is conspiring against me. Heck, maybe it is. Maybe I’ve been cursed since I stepped through that portal. Given that I’m stuck with the infuriating Aron, I believe it. One minute I think he might be okay, and the next I want to choke him.

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31

I finally get to the grate he pointed out and sure enough, it’s the last one for a while. The tunnels disappear into an alarming, deep darkness, and I’m glad we’re getting out here. It’s quiet up above, so if someone’s waiting for us, they’re being really stealthy about it. I don’t hear a mob, though, and that’s a good thing.

I don’t see a ladder, either. This worries me, especially when Aron pulls a rope out of his bag and makes a loop at the end of it.

“What’s that for?” I have to ask.

He looks at me with smug arrogance. “To get out, of course. Unless you have a better idea.”

“Ladder?”

“Did you find one?”

“Well, no—”

“Then we climb out.”

I stare at the rope as he manages to hook it on a decorative flourish on the edge of the grate and then wraps the rope around one big hand. “I’m not sure I can do that,” I tell him tiredly. I want to cry with how exhausted and dirty I am. We’re supposed to be resting in an inn right now, not running for our lives through a sewer. I just want a nap and another bath and maybe a day where someone’s not trying to kill me.

Aron puts a hand under my chin, tilting my head up until I look at him. “I won’t leave you behind, Faith.”

For some reason, that makes me feel better. I nod, trying to maintain a stiff upper lip, because I know that’s what he’d want. When he smiles at me, it’s stupid, but I almost feel like I won his approval.

Not that I want it, or need it.

But it’s nice to have it anyhow.

I remain standing in the middle of the sewer while Aron shimmies up the rope, all the way to the top of the grate. He hooks his hands into the metal of the grate itself, then presses his face against the bars. He spots something through them, because as I watch, he takes the length of rope and works it around something up top, his arms straining, and then when he’s done, he curls one hand around the rope again, drops a few inches and hangs by the strength of one arm as he uses the other to push the heavy metal grate to the side. Then, he climbs up.

It’d be an impossible feat for any normal human, but of course Aron isn’t normal. Or human.

He tosses the length of rope back down to me and I catch it. Aron leans over and peers down at me. “You won’t be able to climb.”

I shake my head. “I’ll try.”

“No, Faith. I don’t want you to hurt yourself. There’s a loop at the bottom I made. Slip your foot through that and I’ll pull you up.”

Thank god. I step into it and wrap the rope around my hands to anchor myself, and then Aron’s pulling me out of the sewer and into the moonlight. When I get close to the top, he takes my arm and hauls me onto the grass and I lie there for a moment, panting with relief.

At least, I do until I look up and see that he’s anchored his rope to what looks like a creepy white statue. Huh. It looks like something you’d see in a graveyard. Of course, when I take a look around, I realize that that’s exactly where we are. “We’re in a cemetery?”

“At least it’s quiet,” Aron says. “No mob here.”

He’s got a point. I stare around me in the darkness, still shocked at what I’m seeing. Headstones and monuments dot the grassy yard we’re in, and distant trees rustle their leaves against an iron fence. For such a big city, Katharn has a very crowded graveyard, and I get to my feet, shaking my clothes off. “How is it that there’s a grave over the sewer?”

Aron looks at me as if I’m crazy, then points at the cobbled gutter I appear to be standing in. “No one’s buried there. They’re buried in the grass.”

I study the graveyard itself. He’s right. The graveyard itself is about the size of a football field, all told. There’s the gutter that cuts through the middle of the graveyard and ends right in front of a fountain. The gutter itself is angled and sloped so the water runs away from the hillsides and over the grass itself, there are headstones. Not dotted and delicately arranged like in the graveyards I’m used to, but lined up in tight rows with nowhere to step except on someone’s final resting place. It’s clear that space optimization is the name of the game here, and there’s not an inch to be wasted in Katharn’s graveyard. Even the trees aren’t wild growing. They’re in enormous earthen pots set at the four corners of the courtyard, and at the center of the courtyard, there’s a fountain with another statue of an enormous robed man with big shoulders and a cowl hiding his featureless face. He’s got a sword made of bones in one hand, a skull in the other, and the crown atop his cowl looks as if it, too, is made entirely of fingerbones. At the base of the fountain’s lip, there are dozens of old candles, half melted and all unlit. This has to be a representation of another god, though the name escapes me. All I know is that he’s a scary-looking motherfucker. I turn to Aron and point at the statue.